Things That Go Bump In The Night
by Kelly Greyer
Summary: Jean is having telekinetic fits in her sleep again and is hurting herself quite badly. Her TK gives a whole new meaning to things that go bump in the night.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I didn't really want to put this into two chapters because it wasn't meant to be read as such but I feel like 5000+ words can be a little intimidating for a one one shot. I may eventually go back and just put it all together but for now, here it is. All characters are written as teenagers, Jean herself being 18.

* * *

Flames ripped at her bare back as her arms were extended wide. She felt like she was burning crucified and every single tear that spilled from her eyes burned like new hell all the way down her face and to her bare chest. No restraints were actually on her to hold her in place. It was this indescribable feeling of nothingness mixed together with everything that she only knew to be a telekinetic hold on her wrist and waist. She also knew the agony in her head to be that of telepathy, but not her own, no not her own. It was an electric feeling over her mind that intensified every strike to her body. Whoever was inside her head was only there to make sure she remained conscious enough to fully experience all the pain that was being brought to her.

Jean cried out again against her own will. Wanting so much to remain quiet as if this attack was not breaking her, but she did not hold the will to do so. Soft olive colored skin was ripped, red, and bloody. Long luscious red hair was tangled and strewn everywhere but over her face, where she really wished it to be. If only to hide the shame and defeat on her face. There was another lick at her back that sent a shiver of pain down her spine and her scream shook her body.

Before she knew it she was flying forward, snapped into reality after so long and met with the darkness of her room. It was all a dream.

Jean reached down to her soft mattress below her and as soon as she did she regretted it. Having not realized before that she was not lying in her bed but levitating above it, trying to touch it below her seemed to rip the telekinetic carpet from under her and she fell. Jean however had moved in tonight's telekinetic fit just slightly to the right of her bed, so instead of falling harmlessly back into a pile of blankets she fell to the floor, smacking the back if her head on the nightstand next to her bed. The alarm clock that sat on it along with some other useless things fell to the floor in a rather noisy crash at their resting place being disturbed. Jean would have usually been quick to pick them up as if somehow removing them from the place that they crashed to would reverse the sound that they had made previously.

Now though Jean was curled into a ball on the floor, her hands wrapped around the back if her throbbing head as she tried not to scream out in pain, she didn't want anyone coming to find her like this. Jean bit into her lower lip, trying to transfer the pain she felt and the urge she had to scream loudly into a more quiet and subtle pain. She tasted the blood in her mouth from the death grip she had on her lip with her teeth.

Jean breathed out through her nose hard though as she let up in her lip and loosened the grip on her head, now just resulting to staying in that ball on the floor. Covering her face with her arms, her body shook with silent sobs. She thought she had outgrown these telepathic fits.

She thought she had more control than this.

* * *

"Oh there is no way Bobby." Ororo let out with a laugh as the younger mutant smiled at her.

"Usually I'd make a big deal about it but seeing as how you're the only person I know who can survive a ice bomb from the ice man himself, I'll let you slide. You've earned your respect wind rider." Bobby pushed a spoon full of cereal into his mouth as Ororo and Warren both started to laugh hysterically.

"Yeah sure thing Bobby. Besides, of course I can survive anything you dish out. Don't you think it'd be a little silly if I can control the weather but I actually get cold...or hot for that matter." It was true. Aside from the abnormal instance of a fever from the flu or something else relating to her being sick, Ororo never got hot or cold. Her powers came with a satisfying side effect of being impervious to heat or cold and so Ororo most usually remained a nice comfortable 98.6 degrees.

"Morning Jean." Warren was the first to notice Jean slowly walk into the kitchen and Bobby and Ororo turned with greetings of their own.

"Hey guys." Jean gave a thoughtless wave as she shuffled over to the fridge to grab the cartoon of orange juice.

"Well you look lovely this fine morning. And of course by lovely I mean terribly sleep deprived." Warren and Ororo stared at Bobby in his blatancy.

"You know Bobby, you have all of the subtly of a neon sign on the Vegas strip." Warren offered in a flat tone.

"It's a gift." Bobby shrugged. And while it might have been not the nicest way to point it out, Bobby did indeed have a point. Ororo eyed Jean for a second while she poured a cup of orange juice.

"Did you get much sleep last night Jean? I heard some bumping around really late." Ororo pried slightly having meant anyway to ask Jean about the noise she heard coming from her room at such an odd hour.

Had Ororo thought anything of it, she would have asked Jean when the two had a moment alone.

"Yeah that was me." Jean nodded as she spoke.

"What were you doing?" Ororo's curiosity grew.

"Just...fixing something." Usually Jean would have been better with her answers, having thought them out ahead of time. But she hadn't been getting much sleep for the past couple of weeks now, and she was so tired.

"Liiikkkkeee?" Ororo implored her to continue.

"Like stuff." Ororo had never known Jean to be so course with her unless of course she was hiding something. And judging by the way Jean was dead stuck on avoiding Ororo's eyes, she would guess that she was either realizing a new found interest border lining obsession with orange juice, or she was definitely hiding something. Ororo let it sit for a second and pretended to turn her interest back to the boys who were going on about Twinkies as Jean stood at the end of the table. Before Ororo could say something though, Jean was placing her glass in the sink and hurriedly leaving the kitchen, quickly Ororo rose to follow her.

"Hey Jean, you mind coming with me for a sec? I want to get your opinion on something." Jean stopped in her tracks and hesitated before she turned around.

"I would mind actually," Jean motioned behind her with her thumb. "I'm busy, I gotta go." Ororo watched as Jean turned around again and headed to the front door, opening it, leaving, and slamming it shut with a desperate quickness.

* * *

"That was an almost perfect danger room session X-men. Hopefully next time we'll have a full team." Scott's jaw was set in frustration as he mentioned them being down one member with the absence of Jean. He of course took danger room sessions very seriously and rarely ever let up, regardless of which of them it was that was the weak link.

"Yeah, where the heck is Jean?" Warren asked, admittedly a little annoyed himself. "Without her here I had to take all the throws." His wings twitched as he walked away from the group of teens. "I swear, all I ever do is catch X-men."

Just as Warren turned the corner, the professor came wheeling up to the remainder of the teens, a small smile of amusement at Warren visible on his face.

"Very good work adapting however Scott. It was still a very successful training exercise."

"Yeah don't sweat it, O' Fearless." Bobby announced as he threw an arm around Scott's shoulder.

"Would you all stop calling me that?!" Scott protested and shoved an arm into Bobby's side to push him off. "Have you seen Jean professor?" The professor shook his head.

"I'm afraid I have not Scott, but you needn't worry. I'll be sure to talk with Jean about missing training sessions myself." Scott nodded as he walked away with Hank and Bobby in tote.

"Speaking of Jean Professor, I was wondering if you had a moment?"

"Of course Ororo. I had a feeling that you were a little uneasy, perhaps distracted?" The two turned and talked as they headed up from the lower levels of the mansion.

"Honestly I'm a little worried about Jean. She's been acting...strange lately."

"Mhmm." The professor seemed to take Ororo's concerns in for a moment, tossing them around his head. "I have noticed a bit of hesitation from Jean in our independent sessions. I do trust however that if there is anything that weighs heavily on Jean's mind she would come to me if not certainly to you." Ororo nodded not really satisfied with his answer though not pushing the issue any further.

She knew of the professor's wish to not use his own abilities to be intrusive in their minds.

"You're probably right."

* * *

After changing from her uniform Ororo had decided to go and try to find Jean again. Sporting a pair of Adidas joggers, a hugging white V-neck long sleeve shirt, and her white hair in a messy bun, Ororo went to Jean's room first to see if she had returned. Only being 2 doors down, Ororo usually heard if Jean was being loud in her room, but still two doors down made to be a fine buffer that it was never a problem for her. Finding the door slightly open already, Ororo pushed it the remainder of the way without a second thought.

Jean was her best friend, there wasn't much about her that Ororo didn't know, nor was there much about Ororo that Jean didn't know. The only things that really remained mysteries were the things that were too painful for them to even admit to their own-selves, and even still those things had eventually gotten worked through with the aid of each other. Ororo wasn't surprised to see that Jean's room was empty even though it was well on it's way to 9:00pm. The sun had gone down and usually Jean would have been back to the mansion by now, perhaps if she didn't return before it got too late Ororo would start to worry.

The first thing that caught Ororo's eye was the vanity that sat in the back of Jean's room. Ororo had one just like in her room but hers wasn't missing the large mirror that sat in the middle of it like Jean's was. Ororo looked at it in confusion while she walked slowly towards it, as if observing it more would some how give her insight as to where the mirror had gone.

"What are you doing in here?" Ororo snapped quickly around, surprised by both Jean's sudden entrance and the ire in her tone.

"Oh uh, I was looking for you." For a second Jean stood in the entrance of the doorway, just staring down Ororo's blue eyes with her deep green eyes. And just as Ororo started to feel the burn of her gaze she broke away. Moving around her bed, Jean began to pick up some things on the floor, her alarm clock and some books.

"Where have you been all day?" Ororo watched Jean as she worked but knew she was more so trying to keep herself busy. With her back facing her friend, Jean only gave a rough shrug in response.

"You missed a danger room session you know. Scott's a little pissed but you know how he is. The professor said he would talk to you about it though." Jean had suddenly stopped moving, as she stayed kneeled to the floor. She had forgotten that there was a danger room session. Damn her and the way she felt now. It only meant that Ororo wasn't going to be the only one breathing down her neck. Jean rubbed her forehead as she stood and faced Ororo, the disdain gone from her tone and posture and what Ororo thought was exasperation took its place.

"Look I'm really tired 'Ro, can we just...not do this?" Jean's voice cracked a little and she almost felt like she would cry right there and judging by the look on Ororo's face she knew she looked it too. Ororo was hesitant. She wasn't sure which she wanted to do, or rather, which would be the decision of the better friend.

To pester Jean now and force whatever was bothering her out even though it was obvious that she actually was tired and maybe a goodnights sleep could help.

Or maybe let her rest and see how she did in the morning. Though by then she would have been equipped to master the way she looked to you. Hiding behind her smiles and her light laughter, knowing exactly what to say and what to do because she knew that you were onto her.

Quirks of being best friends with Jean Grey the telepath.

Maybe against her better judgment she chose the latter.

"Yeah sure Jean, sure." Ororo stuffed her hands in her pockets and left the room.

* * *

The crack about the subtly of the neon sign is a shout out to fellow arthur Trinity Day and their story 'Nightmares'


	2. Chapter 2

That tire screech was so loud.

Probably louder than it should have been, the loudest that she had ever heard anything in her entire life. It was like all of her senses had been shut off and channeled into her hearing. She couldn't see the blood that she couldn't feel running through her hands mixing into the black tire marks that she couldn't smell. All she could do was sit there and hear, hear so strongly that her head started to pound. Hear the tires smash into a young soul. Hear that young souls cry out for attention. It ringing through her ears like a great bell of warning. The footsteps were loud too, the way they echoed off of her eardrums told her that they must be her own, rushing to this lost soul. Hearing her pant, and cry, and take her last breaths of darkness.

Ultimately alone because you weren't enough.

And you never would be.

Never granted a chance to change that because you can only react, and hear her die. Suddenly you feel her; she is in your arms. You see her lying there, dying not for you but because of you. Her pain is great. Too great. You feel it, hear it, and see it.

It surrounds you and in this moment you know it always will. Her last gasp for air is a direct link to you, she gasp as you exhale. And while she begs for one more breath of air it flows from your lungs and to her. You grant her, her dying wish, your last one, and suddenly you are slumped over.

You are both dead.

Jean snaps awake again for the however many time in what was becoming too long a string of occurrences for her to keep count. Jean could feel the bed under her and knew she was not levitating in the air. Sweat causing sheets to adhere to skin; Jean looks up as a flash of light catches her eye. Her throat is caught in her chest as she ducks down into her sheets at the last possible second. Barely missing getting smashed in the face by the long spare mirror that she had brought out of her closet only three days ago. The mirror collides loudly and violently with the headboard and smashes into pieces. Quickly, Jean shields her eyes as all of the glass shards fall on her like a rainstorm. She feels a few pieces nick her face but she isn't given much time to think anything of it.

A groan escapes her lips and then another, moaning in pain Jean lets out a sharp breath as the glass shards that cover her bed begin to sink into her skin at every slight movement. Her moans turn into whimpers as she bites down on her lip, trying to keep quiet though the rational side of her knows that with that loud crash it would be a miracle if she hadn't already woken everyone up.

"Jean?!" A hushed but alarmed voice is on the other side of her door. She hears Ororo trying the knob but Jean locked the door before she went to bed. Ororo is pounding at the door and while usually Jean would use her TK to unlock it, she couldn't even muster enough concentration to do so as she focused on trying to get out of her painful bed with the least amount of blood loss possible.

Jean pressed her hand down on the bed to try and slide to the edge but she catches a rather large piece of glass that sinks deep into her skin. She shrieks out again and pulls her hand back in pain but as a result puts her weight on her other hand and feels smaller shards pushing into her palm. Suddenly the door exploded open and Hank was the first one through followed by Ororo then Scott then Warren and then Bobby. The sudden entrance startled Jean and she regrettably moved again, feeling multiple pieces rip through her calves.

Jean looked up at her friends in almost terror, her green eyes pleading for them to help her out of the mess she had created. Bobby tried to flick the light on but it was no use, looking up to where the light should have been he saw nothing. They all noted the same thing in that apparently the mirror wasn't the only glass Jean had unknowingly shattered into her bed.

"Don't move" Hank said softly as he approached the bed. He put a hand on the small of Jean's back and another under her legs and lifted her off of the bed, he turned to exit the room and take her to the infirmary, the eyes of her friends all on her.

The piece of glass in her calf had hurt the most.

Jean ripped into her bottom lip to stop from yelling out when Hank pulled that piece out. Ororo and Scott at both her sides, Ororo grabbing her right hand and Scott gabbing her left arm as Hank had not yet attended to the gash on her left hand. The two were both comforting her and holding her up so that Hank could remove the glass that was in the back of her legs. The large piece in her calf sent a decent flow of blood down her leg and had she not known better, she would have been sure she had nicked an artery. Bobby and Warren both sat in silence, avoiding her glance for they weren't sure what to do with it, she was glad for this though.

"What happened?" The professor had finally come into the infirmary, demanding to know what had happened and why Jean was standing before him bleeding from what seemed like a hundred little cuts and some quite impressive lacerations on her body. Everyone remained silent and just looked at the professor, not really being sure how to sum this all up, no one but Jean of course. She hesitated before speaking.

"I had a telekinetic fit in my sleep." Jean said it fast and pushed it out, as if had she not said it then she wouldn't have ever been able to admit it to herself. Another tear slid down her cheek, though this one not because of the glass being extracted from her skin.

Ororo squeezed her hand tighter and only for a second did the two girls make eye contact.

Hank had taken to patching up the bigger of her cuts but simply cleaned the lashes to her hand and her calf, as he knew they would need stitches.

"You all should go back to sleep." Charles stated calmly to Bobby and Warren who knew his suggestion was more of a command. With last looks to Jean who still watched the ground, they exited. "You as well Scott." Scott looked away from the professor and to Jean for confirmation. He didn't care what the professor was telling him to do; he wasn't going anywhere until he knew Jean would be fine. Jean nodded sadly to him; usually she was very good at finding his eyes but not so much when he was wearing his sleeping goggles that he hadn't had a chance to change out of. Scott let go off Jean's hand after a moment more of hesitation. As he walked past Ororo, he gave her a friendly squeeze on the shoulder and she nodded silently in response.

He understood why the professor wasn't asking her to leave.

Jean and Ororo were the closest to each other out of everyone in the house. They had a trust established within each other that he didn't think could ever be broken. At first thought, he credited it the fact that they were the only two girls in the house. But in an unintentionally insightful conversation with the professor, he had begun to believe that the two shared some deep understanding of each other's powers even though their powers didn't seem to get any more different. Scott didn't really understand them fully, the idea of them when they were together. But it did make him more comfortable with leaving Jean because he knew she had Ororo there with her and that could be the equivalent to having an army on your side.

Maybe that was it, Jean and Ororo's friendship was embedded in their unearthly tempers.

"Jean, you hadn't had this happen in years, why now?" The professor's words were more of an outward expression of shock at the fact that he didn't know. He was supposed to be helping these youngsters and yet he had no idea, and his ignorance had let this happen.

"I don't know." Jean stared blankly out in front of her as she talked, not really focusing on anything in particular.

"You can sit down now Jean." Without taking her eyes off of the nothing that she was fixed on in front of her, Jean slowly moved backwards and lifted herself gingerly atop of the metal examining table. The small cuts on her thighs stung as they came in contact with the cool metal. "This will numb your hand and help with the pain, but it may still hurt." Hank offered to her as he injected something into her hand through a needle.

Ororo found herself thinking that he was going to make a great doctor some day, or scientist, or...whatever he found to suit his intellectual appetite, probably all at once.

Jean had finally pulled her attention to the professor as she looks at him intently. He, regarding her with concern in his eyes, remained silent and Ororo knew they were engaging in a telepathic conversation. While she wasn't the only person in the house that hated when they did that, she completely understood why. Some things just don't need to be said aloud, and while they were her teammates and best friends, they didn't need to know everything. Especially not the painful and intimate details of Jean's ongoing struggle with her powers. It seemed like Jean had come the farthest in her training but still had the farthest to go, that in it of itself being a small glimpse into what she had to go through.

Though Ororo knew about these things not to pry, when Jean was ready she would tell her.

Hank had finished stitching Jean's hand and placed a bandage around the wound, moving on to her leg. Sitting in silence for a little longer Jean had finally nodded and turned away from the professor.

"Would you mind lying on your stomach Jean?" Hank asked and Jean moved, slowly lying on the table and turning onto her stomach. Ororo walked around the table so that she could still see Jean's face.

_'I trust you'll watch over her tonight.'_ The familiar feeling of the professor inside Ororo's head disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared after she nodded in compliance. Only thinking that had she not backed down before, Jean wouldn't be here now.

Ororo and Hank helped Jean back up the to the bedrooms as her leg was causing her a bit of pain as she walked. Upon coming to the boys wing Ororo stopped.

"I've got her Hank, you should go to bed."

"Are you sure?" Hank didn't mind helping Jean all the way back.

"No, it's fine, really." Jean offered and Hank finally accepted.

"Alright, goodnight ladies." They both called back their goodnights and continued only a few more empty rooms down to Jean's room. Ororo stepped into the room first and tried to flick the lights on, forgetting that Bobby had already found them to be literally blown out. Jean sighed as she limped into the room, wincing a little with every step. Ororo looked at her in the darkness, her eyes, having not adjusted, could not fully read the expression on her face.

"Do you just want to sleep in my room?" Jean nodded, she was too tired to deal with this mess and Ororo's bed was not one that was foreign to her anyway.

They walked the two rooms down to Ororo's room and again, Ororo flipped the light switch on. Slowly Jean walked and sat on the edge of the bed that she had gotten somewhat accustomed to being in when she didn't want to be alone. Maybe after having a subtler nightmare she would come here, or when the spite of her parents overwhelmed her, or when she was just so distraught all she could think to ask for was a hug from her best friend. A hug to protect her from the memories and the fears and the doubts, a hug that Ororo was always ready to give.

But before she was received with arms of kindness and compassion, she had to confess something.

"I lied to the professor." Jean's voice took Ororo by surprise, as she hadn't expected her to say a word. But at what she said she was less surprised; Jean was probably the only person Ororo knew that could lie to the face and mind of Charles Xavier.

"About what?" Ororo asked as she sat on the other side of the bed looking at Jean's back. Jean let out a shaky breath before she continued, Ororo had no idea how immensely difficult what she was about to do was. But still Jean stood, gripping at the edges of the white long sleeve t-shirt she often wore to bed, Jean pulled it over her head.

Ororo's eyes widened in shock as she observed her friend's body. Bruises and scars littered her back, they all a sickly shade of purple that gave Ororo a chill. Jean turned to face her, tears swelled in her eyes as she stood there in nothing but a white sports bra and pajama shorts.

Her body painted dried blood red and sweet suffocation blue.

"God Jean..." Ororo could offer no words as Jean revealed the bruises on her chest and stomach that she could tell were fresher than those on her back. A brutal looking bruise lined her ribs and was so bad it not only was purple and black, but it also had a yellow center that Ororo knew had to cause Jean pain every time that she took a breath.

Reminding her every second of every day that she didn't have this under control.

"It wasn't just tonight." Jean glanced away from Ororo's shocked face and pulled the shirt that she still held in her hand back over her head, as if that shirt could protect her, as if Ororo could forget what she had just seen.

"Jean you have to tell the professor." Ororo wasn't sure how she could help Jean aside from her usual trades of a best friend. Somehow she didn't think that a tight hug and a few whispered words of a forgotten language could heal injuries of these sorts.

Maybe a broken heart, but not a broken rib.

"It's like my own powers are trying to kill me." Jean didn't understand it. Sure, when she became flustered in her nightmares her TK went crazy and she sent things flying, that she could get past. But why was it that her subconscious always brought things flying into her own body.

Did she have this deep seated hatred for herself beyond that of what she was use to?

So much so that her own mind was trying to put her out of her misery?

Maybe it was a form of self-mutilation, instead of playing the violin on her wrist with a razor blade; she would try and beat herself to death every night.

"I'm just so tired 'Ro." Perhaps it was time for Jean to listen. Perhaps it was time to leave her troubles behind and put her mind at ease. Perhaps it was time to really rest, give up her life and just rest. "And I don't want to do this anymore."

"Come here." Ororo flipped the lights back off really so that Jean didn't see her tears. She crawled over the bed and pulled Jean down into her embrace. It hurt her beyond words to hear her best friend talk like that. To be so distraught that she would consider taking her own life. Ororo stroked her hair and rocked her slightly in her arms.

"Jean, it gets better. It has to get better. And I know you're tired Jean, but tonight you're going to rest. And I am going to be here to watch over you okay?" Ororo's voice cracked and she took a shaky breath. "And we can wake up and start all over again tomorrow."

* * *

Ororo wasn't sure when she had fallen asleep nor was she sure when Jean had. But she was awaken in the middle of the night by a somewhat subtle bump and sat up in bed and looked around the room. Her face was ready for war, as if Jean's telekinesis was an entity on its own about to show itself and charge for Jean. And surely Ororo would be prepared; to shield Jean and do everything she could to make sure that she slept through the night.

There wasn't a single person or thing that was going to take Jean away from her, least of all not Jean herself.

Ororo wasn't afraid of the things that went bump in the night, but surely if those things had any need for self-preservation, they would be afraid of her.


End file.
